Maryland football quarterback Kasim Hill turned and sprinted away from the line of scrimmage to retrieve a botched snap on third-and-three on the Terps’ opening drive Saturday against then-No. 19 Iowa.

By the time Hill scooped it up, a Hawkeye defender was in his face and forced him to immediately throw it out of bounds. Having been derailed by the bad snap, Maryland punted. The offensive unit would see the field for just 12 more plays in the first half of the eventual 23-0 drubbing in Iowa City.

Maryland’s defense forced Iowa to settle for three field goals after lengthy drives that chewed up clock and yardage. But the Terps struggled to do much of anything on offense. Nine of their 10 possessions didn’t last more than six plays; Maryland accumulated 115 yards on 39 plays, tying for the program’s second-fewest play total since 2000.

It’s the second time this season that interim head coach Matt Canada’s offense was held scoreless. For an offensive coordinator who came in with a history of molding his unit around his best players’ strengths, that inconsistency is a worrying sign.

“There’s nobody ever planning on only having 39 plays on offense, right?” Canada said. “We only had three [complete] drives [in the first half]. And one of them we had first downs. We just — we just didn’t sustain it.”

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Canada said that the windy conditions in Iowa City hindered the Terps, but acknowledged that Iowa’s offense didn’t seem bothered by it. After Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley’s first throw badly overshot his intended target and went right to linebacker Tre Watson, Stanley mostly kept his throws short, often into the flat, and the Hawkeyes handed the ball off 52 times.

Iowa didn’t break off long gains frequently, but its rushing attack found positive yardage on just about every attempt. That led to prolonged drives such as its second possession, which lasted over nine minutes and ended with a field goal. Five of the Hawkeyes’ nine drives were at least 10 plays.

“We noticed right away, right off the bat, that they were going to do a lot of boundary run game,” defensive lineman Jesse Aniebonam said. “They attacked that boundary real hard.”

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Meanwhile, Maryland remained puzzlingly dedicated to passing into the whipping wind rather than rely heavily on its running backs — the team’s deepest and most talented positional group — as Canada has throughout the season.

The Terps passed 16 times Saturday and rushed 23. The increased balance didn’t pay off and prevented players such as running back Ty Johnson from receiving a handoff until late in the third quarter.

Running back Javon Leake led the Terps with 16 yards, which all came on one carry. Johnson and running back Anthony McFarland managed a combined 30 yards on 10 total carries. Maryland’s 68 yards on the ground was its lowest output this year.

“We weren’t able to get our running attack going the way we had hoped we would,” Canada said. “It’s the calls, it’s blocking, it’s running. It’s the whole deal.”

And while Canada said his squad would come back next week against Illinois and play better on offense, he appeared at a loss about exactly what went wrong Saturday or how to fix those gaffes in the future.

“I don’t have the answers for you,” Canada said. “We have to score more points. Obviously. We didn’t score any.”